The disclosed embodiments relate to electronic games, such as electronic games played over wired or wireless connections.
With the proliferation of new technologies such as wireless phones or other devices, as well as increasing numbers of homes and workplaces that have Internet or other network connections, the demand for content to take advantage of these technologies has increased. There are many possible types of content, ranging from educational content, entertainment content, advertising content, informational content, etc. The educational content may include a plethora of options, such as multi-media entertainment, games, jokes, etc.
Gaming content has enormous potential to provide entertainment content that will improve the user's experience and provide a great deal of entertainment on connected devices, whether the connections are wired or wireless. By improving the user's experience, the desirability of the devices is also increased, which may result in increased sales or sale prices. In addition, by providing an entertaining reason for users to use devices, the possibilities for collecting data, providing advertising, etc. are also improved.
However, current games for connected devices are plagued with problems that make it impossible for these games to reach their potential. First, connected devices, particularly wireless devices, often have limited hardware and software capability. Accordingly, games on these devices are limited by this capacity and do not have the graphics, sounds, depth, or complexity that would otherwise be possible. Moreover, current games for connected devices do not have sophisticated multi-user or multi-session capability. For example, a multi-user game requires all users in the game to be connected simultaneously. If a user drops his or her connection, that user loses his or her place in the game. This problem makes multi-user games less engrossing and less appealing. In addition, current games do not allow for users on different platforms (e.g., mobile phone, palmtop computer, etc.) to play in the same game or against each other because of differences in the platforms.
Wired or wireless devices may be connected via a network, such as the Internet or an intranet. The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks interconnected through communication channels. The Internet is used for a variety of reasons, including electronic commerce, exchanging information such as electronic mail, retrieving information and doing research, and the like. Many standards have been established for exchanging information over the Internet, such as electronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). The WWW service allows a server computer system (i.e., web server or web site) to send graphical web pages of information to a remote client computer system. The remote client computer system can then display the web pages. Each resource (e.g., computer or web page) of the WWW is uniquely identifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). To view a specific web page, a client computer system specifies the URL for that web page in a request (e.g., a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request). The request is forwarded to the web server that supports that web page. When that web server receives the request, it sends the requested web page to the client computer system. When the client computer system receives that web page, it typically displays the web page using a browser. A browser is typically a special-purpose application program for requesting and displaying web pages.
Currently, web pages are often defined using HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define how a web page is to be displayed. When a user makes a request to the browser to display a web page, the browser sends the request to the server computer system to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document that defines the web page. When the requested HTML document is received by the client computer system, the browser displays the web page as defined by the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags that control the display of text, graphics, controls, and other features. The HTML document may contain URLs of other web pages available on that server computer system or on other server computer systems.
New protocols exist, such as Extensible Mark-up Language (“XML”) and Wireless Access Protocol (“WAP”). XML provides greater flexibility over HTML. WAP provides, among other things, the ability to view web pages over hand-held, wireless devices, such as cell phones and portable computers (e.g. PDA's).
Note: the headings provided herein are for convenience and do not affect the scope or interpretation of the invention.